Okay, okay, I'll give Madden his props. Sure he's not the best announcer, doesn't have the best voice and isn't the most photogenic individual out there, but he knows football. Period. When it comes to the game, Madden knows what he's talking about. When he provides commentary on a game, you can pretty much bank on it.
In terms of video games, it was Madden's sheer demand that the game play like real football that he forced EA to return to the drawing board again and again and again until it met his specifications. Only then did it get the Madden name. So, in an odd sort of way, by sticking to his guns and demanding a high level of quality from Electronic Arts (as opposed to sitting on his arse and raking in whatever royalties he got from EA), he has crafted the standard we see in football video games today. For this reason alone, Madden gets props from me.
I'll probably get a
lot of heat for this, but I really liked Dennis Miller when he was doing MNF. I thought he was an excellent commentator. As Miller would say in his "Rants" books:
That's just my opinion, I could be wrong. 